"All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere.Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."

Walt HAD to kill Mike in order to kill all those witnesses in prison. His action may have been spur of the moment but it had to be done. Because the second Mike heard about those prison deaths he was coming out of hiding to ventilate Walt's skull. Which, btw, is how Jesse knew for a fact Mike was dead. Jesse knew Walt would never have the guts to order those hits if Mike was still out there.

Walt HAD to kill Mike in order to kill all those witnesses in prison. His action may have been spur of the moment but it had to be done. Because the second Mike heard about those prison deaths he was coming out of hiding to ventilate Walt's skull. Which, btw, is how Jesse knew for a fact Mike was dead. Jesse knew Walt would never have the guts to order those hits if Mike was still out there.

My brother makes this argument too, and it totally holds water. But mike was just a such a great character and guy that it's one of the harder things to forgive Walt for.

The chemistry teacher turned meth kingpin (played by Bryan Cranston) was TV’s most talked-about antihero, luring 10.3 million viewers to Breaking Bad‘s series finale—up 442% from season four—and sparking thousands of Internet debates about the nuances of morality. And White’s (spoiler alert!) death did real-world good: a funeral event staged by fans raised $17,000 for the Albuquerque homeless.

Another example, I don't believe that Hank's death is really Walt's fault at all. He definitely set in motion the events that led to it, but so many other people making poor decisions contributed to the escalation, something Walt was trying desperately to prevent. He was trying to make things right with both Hank and Jesse the entire season and was opening doors for both of them left and right. He even called off Jack and his thugs and gave himself up, and after that went south he tried to buy Hank's life. He was willing to part with his entire fortune if it saved Hank's life. However! However I will admit that this was the end result of most of Walt's crimes. It's kind of a conundrum, really. Did he cause Hank's death? I'm gonna say probably, but it wasn't just him.

Part of the problem with your argument is that you contradict yourself, as your first and last sentences in this paragraph did here. I don't think anyone is saying that everyone in the show is blameless except for Walt. Everyone in some way contributed to the downfall. But the show is pretty clear in saying that the lion's share of the blame is on Walt, and he pays a price for it at the end.

Also I am not sure where you get "Jane's death isn't Walt's fault". He knew what was going on and he stood there and made zero attempt to help her. You can argue his reasons for letting her die and that can be a valid argument, but the fact remains that by doing nothing he was most certainly to blame for her death. The show even makes a point of that, that this is the first civilian casualty in Walt's foray into the world of drug dealing. He's not the same man that started out in the show's beginning, and the audience is expected to not view him in the same way.

I don't see how it's contradictory. Walt actions alone did not cause Hank's death, so he isn't the only one to blame. I will, however, concede that "at all" in the first sentence isn't entirely accurate, but that's a stream of consciousness thing and I'll take the hit on that one, but I stand by my overall argument.

Thought I'd share this review of "Ozymandius" by Alan Sepinwall. When the show first aired he had just undergone surgery and didn't feel that he'd done the episode justice in his review, so this particular review is round 2 for him.

Quote

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?! WE'RE A FAMILY!!!... We're a family." -Walter White

About seven seconds pass between the time Walter White screams the words "we're a family" and the time he whispers them, and they are an eternity. They are everything. Those seven seconds are what "Breaking Bad" has been building to for the previous 59 hours. They are every illusion Walter White has ever had about himself being shattered. They are the terrified faces of his wife and son as they huddle together on the floor, trying to wish him into the cornfield. They are all the bogus self-rationalizations he has told himself and others being dipped in acid until they are no longer identifiable by forensic science. They are Walter White finally, after so much time and so much sin, coming to terms with everything he has lost.

"Ozymandias" is the greatest hour "Breaking Bad" has ever given its audience. It is also the most terrible. It is unmerciful in what it does to Walt, what it does to Hank and Skyler and Flynn and Marie, and what it does to us.

One thing I thought was interesting is that, at the end with some stray observations, Sepinwall points out that Walt nudges the mattress so that Jane, choking on her vomit, would roll onto her back. I didn't remember that (I thought Jane rolled of her own accord), so I'll have to review it at some point, but if it's true then it makes Walt's complicity in Jane's murder all the more heinous. I thought he just stood there and watched, but according to the review, he evidently took action as well.